{"id":372,"date":"2021-03-17T14:44:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T14:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/program_note\/soul-remembrance\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T20:02:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T20:02:04","slug":"soul-remembrance","status":"publish","type":"program_note","link":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/program_note\/soul-remembrance\/","title":{"rendered":"Soul of Remembrance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Watkins is active not only as a composer, but also as a respected pianist in both jazz and classical circles.\u00a0 A native of Denver, Colorado, she was graduated from Howard University with a degree in music composition in Washington, D.C. in 1972.\u00a0 She established herself as a working jazz pianist there before moving to the west coast.\u00a0 Her musical style as a composer is eclectic, encompassing such diverse elements as country\/folk, gospel, blues and pop.\u00a0 In addition to compositions for symphony orchestra and chamber orchestra, she also has worked in film and the theatre.\u00a0 She is known for her unusual jazz adaptation of Tchaikovsky\u2019s <em>Nutcracker<\/em> (<em>The Revolutionary Nutcracker Sweetie<\/em>) and her musical score for a play based upon the life of the immortal saxophonist, Lester Young.<\/p>\n<p><em>Soul of Remembrance<\/em> is the second movement from the 1994 orchestral suite, <em>Five Movements in Color.<\/em> Commissioned by the Camellia Orchestra in Sacramento, California, it is intended by Watkins as a \u201cstatement about the African-American experience.\u201d\u00a0 Its lush string textures, funereal tempo, and expressive melodic lines are an eloquent paean to lingering memories of the tragedy of the African Diaspora and its aftermath.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Wm. E. Runyan<\/p>\n<p>\u00a92020 William E. Runyan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"program_note_tax":[147],"class_list":["post-372","program_note","type-program_note","status-publish","hentry","program_note_tax-marywatkins"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note\/372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/program_note"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"program_note_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runyanprogramnotes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program_note_tax?post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}